getting the money

[Kim Welch]

I would be afraid someone would try to steal my idea after I pitched them. Is there a way to protect an idea for a movie before you go to get money for it?

Update, November 2026
Ideas themselves can't be copyrighted, only your written expression of them. Protect yourself by writing it down: a treatment or script is protected by copyright as soon as it exists in fixed form. In the US you can register it with the U.S. Copyright Office, and many writers also use the WGA Registry. Keep a record of who you pitch to and when, and work with reputable producers. In practice, a finished, polished script is your best protection, because the execution is what has value.

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[Digigenic]

Registering is Fun...

Registering is Fun...

In deed, here is a link...
http://www.wgaeast.org/script_registration/

 

[mrblue1022]

Protecting an idea

Protecting an idea

There is no way to protect your idea. You can only protect your execution of the idea. The means you have to take your idea and put it down on paper. Now you can do that as a script, novel, treatment, outline, or just a written version of your pitch. Once you have you idea on paper you can then copyright that with the Library of Congress and register it with the Writer's Guild.

Here is something else to keep in mind, if you copyright a pitch for an idea you have and then you tell someone just the log line there is nothing stopping from them from taking your log line and writing a script based on it. They only way they will be violating your copyright is if you tell them the pitch or show them the pitch and then they write something or create something that steals original and novel ideas from your pitch.

Rob

 

[FullSaileee]

RE:

RE:

Check this out when you go to pitch you idea to a company or producer they make you sign this paper saying we might already have this idea in the works lol kinda shady if you ask me i wounder how many people have gotten screwed.


:lol: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

 

[DerekEastham]

Getting the Money... on "Idea Stealing"

Getting the Money... on "Idea Stealing"

You needen't worry about studio's "stealing" your ideas.
The contract which they ask you to sign, and for that matter ask anyone to sign, is purely an industry standard document.
There are far too many lawsuites in this country today, and it is simply protection for the studio against some over zealous writers.

Remember... there are never "new ideas"... just new approaches to them.

 

[MarkG]

Also, frankly, a good idea and $5 will buy you a cup of coffee: there are very, very few ideas good enough to be worth stealing without a script to go with it. You're being paid for turning that good idea into a good script, which is the hard part of the job.

I'm sure it has happened now and again in the past, but if your script is good and you're dealing with any half-decent production company it's almost certainly cheaper for them to buy your script from you than to pay someone else to write it based on your idea... particularly when you consider the potential legal costs if they do steal it.